(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parts feed apparatus incorporated in an automatic electronic parts mounter or the like and, more particularly, to a parts feed apparatus used to position and mount an electronic chip part (to be referred to as a chip part hereinafter) such as a resistor, capacitor, and a transistor on a printed circuit board
(2) Prior Art
A conventional parts feed apparatus of an automatic electronic parts mounter of the type described above is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Disclosure (Kokai) No. 57-148875 filed by the present applicant. In this parts feed apparatus, a tape feed mechanism is linked to a cover tape separating mechanism. Chip parts are sealed in a tape in a sandwich-like manner through a cover tape at equal intervals along the longitudinal direction of the tape. The tape is wound on a tape reel. The tape is intermittently fed from the tape reel and the chip parts are fed to a predetermined parts pickup position
However, in such a conventional parts feed apparatus, the cover tape. is separated at a location apart from the parts pickup position prior to pickup of the chip parts.
As a result, in the conventional apparatus, a chip part stored in the tape is dropped or pops to change its posture while it is fed from the cover tape separation position to the parts pickup position, thus easily causing defective parts pickup by a suction unit or the like. Furthermore, since the cover tape separation mechanism is linked to the tape feed mechanism, the tape feed speed cannot be increased too much in order to prevent undesirable movement of the chip part after separation of the cover tape
In order to eliminate the above drawbacks, conventionally, a chip parts cover or a shutter is provided to be opened immediately before the parts pickup position. However, since their mechanisms are complex, they do not allow a high-speed operation.